Enjoying Time Off in the Summer

 

If you are like me and most other small business owners, you probably feel tied to your work throughout the year, not  leaving much time for a relaxing summer vacation. Even though business owners may believe the business comes before everything, even our own personal welfare, studies have shown that taking a summer vacation can actually benefit the business over the long-term. However, it requires some advance planning. Even if it's too late to implement a plan to go on summer vacation this year, it's not too late to start preparing for a fall or winter vacation.

 

According to surveys, nearly half of all small to mid-sized business owners believe they don't have time for summer vacations and do not take them. However, when these entrepreneurs take advantage of communications technologies, they find they can untether themselves from their offices and shops while remaining available to guide employees through tough waters and emergencies.

 

With the expansion of mobile technology and cloud services, it's not too difficult to work remotely, as many of you probably already know. However, when you don't give yourself enough of a break from the daily processes of business, you may not be receiving the full benefit of a summer vacation. A full 43 percent of people aged 34 to 48 work during vacations, and those 49 to 67 years of age still work 40 percent of their vacation time.

 

A surprising fact, however, is that younger entrepreneurs work less than their older counterparts while on vacation, yet they show greater business growth and are much more optimistic about the future of their businesses.

 

The primary factor to consider when thinking about whether you need a vacation is stress. The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recognized studies in Japan proving that people under chronic levels of stress lose their ability to think clearly and make goal-oriented decisions. The more stress you are under, the more your decisions shift from those that proactively draw you closer to your goals to those that are simply reactions to new situations.

 

An article published in Forbes details how stress is a large factor in the health of employees and employers. In 2012, the average U.S. worker left nine vacation days unused because they felt they couldn't take the time away from work. In 2012, stress-related healthcare costs reached $344 billion. When you consider all the people you know who've been negatively impacted by stress, that statistic is, sadly, not so surprising.

 

A full vacation may be able to break you out of your stress cycle, lead you into greater productivity and bring you closer to your long-term goals. However, I have very few suggestions on how to overcome this problem except to make sure your staff have the skills to cover each other's vacations and yours. Trust them for the short time you are away and even consider a retreat into nature where cell phone signals can't reach (or turning your mobile devices off). You may have a few small fires to put out upon your return, but if you have prepared sufficiently, all in all, your business will remain in great shape and be better off because of your brief absence.

 

If you've had a hard time taking vacations in the past, but have managed to break free from your work on a regular basis, please share your ideas and experiences on how you were able to achieve this important and necessary state. And if you are still trying to figure it out, you might want to start with this article from Bloomberg Business. 

 

Take care, and may you all find a little time away from the job in the remaining weeks of summer.

 

Sincerely,

 

Brian Jones, Editor/Content Manager

CountertopResource.com 

info@countertopresource.com

MIA Technical Bulletin Simplifies Tolerances Research

The Marble Institute of America (MIA) has always provided high-quality materials and 

services to help members and consumers, and the organization is not letting up on offerings designed to make our work lives just a little easier. Although it has been several months, I thought it would be diligent to highlight one of the latest informational releases from the MIA: a new technical bulletin titled Tolerances in the Dimension Stone Industry.

This technical bulletin was actually released in September 2014, but a press release was not issued until March 14 of this year. We here at CountertopResource.com would’ve loved to bring this to you earlier, but it has been a busy year for all of us in the industry, and there is just too much information to cover in depth at all times. However, we believe that this bulletin is so valuable that it is better to talk about it now rather than not all.

MIA Technical Bulletin Volume VII, Issue II was primarily written by Chuck Muehlbauer, technical director of the organization, and was designed with not only fabricators and installers of natural stone in mind, which includes countertop fabricators, but also with designers and architects in mind. The document pulls together installation and fabrication tolerances from several sources, which makes it easier to research and obtain published tolerance standards.

Nothing in Manufacturing or Construction Is Exact

One of the great strengths of this bulletin is that, from the very beginning, it admits that “nothing in manufacturing, construction or commerce is exact.” Although new technologies have allowed us to reduce the level of error, nothing measures exactly as it was specified. Because of this, all manufacturers have provided for allowable deviations from their specified values, and this includes the dimensions that affect the structural integrity and aesthetics of natural stone.

Unfortunately for those in the natural stone industries, tolerance variations for installation and fabrication are not easy to find. It can take uncounted hours to find the specific information required to take the guesswork out of a job. The value of the new technical document was best defined by Muehlbauer when asked about the MIA bulletin:

“The recently published MIA bulletin on fabrication and installation tolerances for natural stone has simplified the lives of both the specifier and the provider,” stated Muehlbauer. “Previously, one would have had to sift through more than 1,000 pages of published documents to find all of this information. Now, it can be easily referenced in a matter of minutes.”

New Voluntary Standard

The Stone Tolerances Technical Bulletin from the MIA is considered to be a voluntary standard for anyone working with natural stone. It has been cross-referenced with tolerance levels provided from a wide range of sources and organizations, and it has been reviewed by stakeholders in the industry as a consensus of their opinions. When no specific documents are available to cover a natural stone project, the MIA encourages this bulletin to be cited as an appropriate industry standard.

Under normal circumstances, this document can be considered an authority on the subject of stone tolerances. However, buyers and sellers may agree to alternate standards, and under extreme conditions, these tolerances may not be appropriate.

The complete technical bulletin is available free of charge at the MIA website, and it can be viewed, downloaded and printed by clicking on the following link: MIA Technical Bulletin on Tolerances in the Dimension Stone Industry.

Countertop Businesses and Fabricators in Indiana

Indiana: The "Hoosier State" entered the Union on Dec. 11, 1816 to become the 19th State. 

True to its motto, "Cross Roads of America" Indiana has more miles of Interstate Highway per square mile than any other state. Today more major highways intersect in Indiana than any other state.

The first long-distance auto race in the U.S. was held May 30, 1922, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The winner averaged 75 mph and won a 1st place prize of $14,000. Today the average speed is over 167 mph and the prize is more than $1.2 million. Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the site of the greatest spectacle in sports, the Indianapolis 500.

Peru Indiana was once known as the "Circus Capital of America". 

All of those people in Indiana need countertops, and there are plenty of places to supply them! You can find a list of countertop businesses in Indiana here.

This is a sneak peek at our efforts to compile the most complete list of countertop fabricators in the United States from A to Z. We will be working on Iowa next and hope to give you a look at that list as soon as its available. And you will find it here first.

There are still some inconsistencies to the list, but we are working to correct them and I just couldn't wait to share it.

In coming weeks (and likely months), we will be compiling lists for all 50 states, and once we get them done, we will seek input from the industry to make sure everything is in order before we release the information to the public.

We think this is going to be very popular with the countertop community and very useful for those seeking new countertops.

Let us know what you think!